On necrosis : being an experimental inquiry into the agency ascribed to the absorbents, in the removal of the sequestrum : with some observations concerning the adhesion of living to dead bone / by George Gulliver.

Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On necrosis : being an experimental inquiry into the agency ascribed to the absorbents, in the removal of the sequestrum : with some observations concerning the adhesion of living to dead bone / by George Gulliver. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    otherwise; while many cases presented phenomena al- together at variance with the received opinion. I soon learned that Mr. Liston and Mr. Syme, who possessed unusual opportunities for observation, had formed a similar view of the subject, while another great au- thority, Mr. Stanley, had arrived at a directly con- trary conclusion : and Mr. Key, in a communication, recently printed in the Transactions of this Society, has minutely described the absorption of dead bone, in order to illustrate the process of ulceration in articular cartilage. I have no opportunity of consulting the numerous original works which have appeared at different times concerning necrosis, but it is unnecessary in this place to exemplify the extent to which the doctrine of the absorption of dead bone has been believed and promulgated, since it is generally taught in the schools of London, and an enumeration of those who have adopted it would compreheiftl almost every writer of eminence on the subject. Dr. Thomson, indeed, although admitting the power of granulations in absorbing dead bone, considers the subject deserv- ing of further inquiry ; and Dr. Craigie simply attri- butes the removal of the old bone to its separation through the new osseous cylinder. The facts which.are brought forward in proof of the absorption of dead bone are simple enough, and easily enumerated ; to wit, the gradual disappearance of the sequestrum in many cases of alleged necrosis; the irregular and eroded state of the dead portion ; ^he contact of granulations with the indentations on its